Are you (more) a biker or a traveler?
 

Does travelling allow you to undergo your real passion for riding, while visiting sights remains in a second place while you are on the road?


Or did you, an avid traveler, found that motorcycling was the best means to channel your passion for travelling after having tried other means?


And if you were forced to choose only one, what you get, riding or travelling?


Even if you think you are in a sort of total balance, try to make a choice… And please, comment on it! :thumbup1: And tell us the size/type of bike you ride.


Cheers,

Esteban

PS: Same poll for 4WDers. Please, vote only once.

I voted biker because I wouldn't have the same enthusiasm for the trips I do if I was travelling by other means.

If I have to select one I would say that I'm a traveler on a bike. Some places are suitable for going by bike - other are not.

The bike is a tool, but since I'm very interested in both mechanics and riding I also spend a lot of time driving without traveling. I also enjoy spending time wrenching to find the ultimate solutions :rolleyes2: - it's like therapy (I obviously need it).

Size of bike (for traveling) has been 500/600/800/1000/1043. The range 800-1043 has been covered with the same bike.

I'd say the choice comes more from a "feeling" than from a rational analysis (and each one's personal story). It may be a subtle difference, but it makes the difference for you. Thanks Magnon, very interesting approach.

A general example: you are in Thailand and have plenty of time (and $). Everyone's telling you Myanmar is a wonderful place to visit, but you cannot enter with your own vehicle (nor rent any there), are you willing to park your vehicle and jump on a bus or it's "no way"?

Well, you may hate buses, but love trains. Or be willing to cycle/drive.

So, is riding the core... or travelling?

Fortunately, things are not black/white, most of us will suit in that box, isn't it nicer? Although I'm only an appretice, I enjoy my poor wrenching. But I'm a traveler and have traveled far more by car/public transport than motorcycle, not always what I would have prefered, but that's it and still more a traveler. In my case more due to a bad family record of bike (fatal) accidents...:frown:

I started out as a traveler thanks to my family. Found motorcycles in my mid 20's, and soon found that for me a bike was the only way to travel. Haven't owned a car since 2009 save for a 4 month stint this past winter to get me through my final semester in college. bier I voted #2, but both 1 and 2 are more correct for me.

I'm with Magnon on this topic. I wouldnt plan trips unless it was by motorcycle. I use a car when I need to be with my parents or children. I go places on the bike :scooter:

I selected "traveler on a bike". I think I am a biker but if I had to choose between traveling by car or not traveling at all, I would choose the car.
The world is to interesting to limit yourself to your own country.

Traveling is the most important thing but I prefer to do it by bike if it is possible.
Maybe when I'm getting older, or if my wife wants to join me on my trips, I have to go by car. (but then I prefer a 4x4 like the Suzuki I have now)

I would never have travelled from the UK to South Africa by any other means, although in Tanzania we parked the bike up twice - once to go to Ngorogoro and once to go to Zanzibar. Also, when we visit big cities we often park the bike and use public transport to explore. I think for me it's the preferred means of transport rather than a mission to conquer the world on 2 wheels.

Can't make up my mind whether I am a motorcyclist with a passion for travel, or, a traveller with a passion for motorcycles.

Not that easy to put in the box, so I won't bother.

Who is a biker?

Someone who does more kilometers in his car then on the bike?
Someone who takes his bike to the mechanic because he doesnt know to change the oil?
Someone who owns a big harley and a scary looking t-shirt just to ride to the coffee place every sunday?


Who is a traveler?

Someone who hops from hotel to hotel?
Someone who books a all inclusive tour through a country?
Someone who speds more time at home working to pay his house or flat TV then traveling?


Its hard to tell...or not?
Tobi

I can't make up my mind.

I love travel, and travelled before I got my first bike. However now I have a bike I would rather travel by bike than any other means of transport.

I ride my bike pretty much every day now and use my bike for recreation.

I find that it's more enriching if there are both approaches, being none any better than the other, but complementary, especially in a forum like HUBB. Some people can help more in one facet and at the same time will learn more themselves in the other.

I had this idea since long ago, but it recently came up again in a post with answers about how it was clear in some writers (Simon Gandolfi, if I recall) that they were more travelers than biker or viceversa, all this by HUBBers whose opinion in general terms I really appreciate (whether I agree or not). That's why I decided to ask it now, for sure not to put people in any box. If anyone doesn’t feel like answering, no need to do it, needless to say. Sure it may be hard.

In my case, riding is an immense pleasure, something I really love, and I knew it even before the 1st time I did it. But too much opposition at home (with good reasons) and lack of funds made me to postpone it too much (my fault). But, it's also true that when I had money and had to choose I always went travelling. So, I know where I am. Love both, but nothing can beat traveling (instead of investing on a bike). At best, I’d travel by bike, but I make compromises.

A digression, probably for those who ended up on travelling on two wheels. Initially, I loved to backpack (solo), meet sort of like-minded people (not so many in my beloved Andalusia at the time), gather in a hostel and chat, look the landscape through the train window (still enjoy trains) and visit monuments and the like. A chicken bus was fun at the time, part of the experience. Then I enjoyed more going on my own means, deciding where and when to stop. And now what count the most is the local people you meet. Both are essential, but travelling is like breathing, although stop riding with be terrible for me now as well... I’d say that in daily working life, riding feels to me the closest feeling of freedom while not traveling.

Traveller on a bike. My motivations for getting a travel bike was being stuck in the back of a public bus in Namibia in 1992 that was overtaken by a German on a XL500 Honda. In that moment I knew my "destiny" :innocent:.

There have been times when I haven't travelled to certain places because I can't go there on a bike.

I've tried the 4wd thing in Southern Africa. My highlights were non-driving based activities and going for a ride with a biker-friend round Natal on his spare bike. Driving the car was pure and simple a PITA.

I've also evolved into a "biker" too: I commute to work on a little 250cc bike (because I getter better mpg than in my van and it's quicker to cut through all the jams) and I have a shiney road bike on which I'll ride out for breakfast or round the TT circuit.

I tried riding a sidecar-outfit but decided it wasn't for me (I crashed it :()

Chris

:thumbup1::thumbup1::thumbup1: That was the purpose of the post (as some others before). Each has a personal story and a different evolution, whether from biker to traveller or the other way! Thanks for sharing, Chris, enjoyed a lot the "damn it, look at that German!" feeling.

PS: I do enjoy driving as well, by contrast. I just get mad when I open the window, turn on the radio and go!

Travler on a bike.
 

One of them people who have had bike's longer than most people have been on this planet. ( Me I'm 65)

Have two bike's. One is for solo travelling. A CBR 1000F and the other one is when the lady friend comes out. Suzuki GSX 1400. The seat on the Suzuki is more suited for her cream cake bum.

Fourteen day's min to an extended one one of 28 day's. Try to stay in the EU. Due to insurance restriction. And I always go south for the sun. If I had the money I would up stick's and move on to the continent just to make travel easer. You are never lost when you are travelling.
John933